Accounts of Translation of Book of Mormon - Could
Smith have really translated but given a doctored one to his secretaries who
wrote down his "translation"?

Joseph Smith made it a core principle of Mormonism that
the Book of Mormon supersedes the Bible for there are issues with the latters'
translation. Its an article of faith that the Book of Mormon is the word
of God. He said that the Book of Mormon was the most correct book on earth
which suggests it is absolutely infallible and translated correctly. He
said man can get closest to God through this book.

Smith wrote, "God is in the still small voice. In all
these affidavits, indictments, it is all of the devil--all corruption. Come on!
ye prosecutors! ye false swearers! All hell, boil over! Ye burning mountains,
roll down your lava! for I will come out on the top at last. I have more to
boast of than ever any man had. I am the only man that has ever been able to
keep a whole church together since the days of Adam. A large majority of the
whole have stood by me. Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it. I
boast that no man ever did such a work as I. The followers of Jesus ran away
from Him; but the Latter-day Saints never ran away from me yet. You know my
daily walk and conversation. I am in the bosom of a virtuous and good people.
How I do love to hear the wolves howl! When they can get rid of me, the devil
will also go. For the last three years I have a record of all my acts and
proceedings, for I have kept several good, faithful, and efficient clerks in
constant employ: they have accompanied me everywhere, and carefully kept my
history, and they have written down what I have done, where I have been, and
what I have said; therefore my enemies cannot charge me with any day, time, or
place, but what I have written testimony to prove my actions; and my enemies
cannot prove anything against me. They have got wonderful things in the
land of Ham. I think the grand jury have strained at a gnat and swallowed the
camel".

Clearly he blames Jesus for losing followers and implies he is a better
spiritual leader. Jesus claimed to give the words of God as even
Smith acknowledged. This implies how strongly Smith asserted his claim to
be a prophet or mouthpiece of God. It virtually makes you think of those
Mormon heretics who hold that Smith was a god in the flesh and the Holy Spirit.

QUOTES ABOUT AN INFALLIBLE BOOK OF MORMON

When writing for your father I frequently wrote day after
day, often sitting at the table close by him, he sitting with his face buried in
his hat, with the stone in it, and dictating hour after hour with nothing
between us.

I will now give you a description of the manner in which
the Book of Mormon was translated. Joseph Smith would put the seer stone into a
hat, and put his face in the hat, drawing it closely around his face to exclude
the light; and in the darkness the spiritual light would shine. A piece of
something resembling parchment would appear, and on that appeared the writing.
One character at a time would appear, and under it was the interpretation in
English. Brother Joseph would read off the English to Oliver Cowdery, who was
his principal scribe, and when it was written down and repeated to Brother
Joseph to see if it was correct, then it would disappear, and another character
with the interpretation would appear. Thus the Book of Mormon was translated by
the gift and power of God, and not by any power of man.

David Whitmer, An Address to All Believers in Christ
(Richmond, MO: n.p., 1887), 12.

I, as well as all of my father's family, Smith's wife,
Oliver Cowdery and Martin Harris, were present during the translation... . He
did not use the plates in the translation.

Martin Harris related an incident that occurred during
the time that he wrote that portion of the translation of the Book of Mormon
which he was favored to write direct from the mouth of the Prophet Joseph Smith.
He said that the Prophet possessed a seer stone, by which he was enabled to
translate as well as from the Urim and Thummim, and for convenience he then used
the seer stone, Martin explained the translation as follows: By aid of the seer
stone, sentences would appear and were read by the Prophet and written by Martin
and when finished he would say "Written," and if correctly written that sentence
would disappear and another appear in its place, but if not written correctly it
remained until corrected, so that the translation was just as it was engraven on
the plates, precisely in the language then used.

Edward Stevenson, The Salt Lake Herald, September 3,
[1870]

By aid of the Seer Stone, sentences would appear and were
read by the Prophet and written by Martin, and when finished he would say
'written;' and if correctly written, the sentence would disappear and another
appear in its place; but if not written correctly it remained until corrected,
so that the translation was just as it was engraven on the plates, precisely in
the language then used.

Martin Harris, quoted by B.H. Roberts, Comprehensive
History of the Church 1:29

The manner in which he pretended to read and interpret,
was the same as when he looked for the money-diggers, with a stone in his hat,
and his hat over his face, while the Book of Plates were at the same time hid in
the woods

Isaac Hale, quoted by Eber D. Howe, Mormonism Unvailed,
1834

When Joseph was translating the Book of Mormon [I] had
occasion more than once to go into his immediate presence, and saw him engaged
at his work of translation. The mode of procedure consisted in Joseph's placing
the Seer Stone in the crown of a hat, then putting his face into the hat, so as
to entirely cover his face, resting his elbows upon his knees, and then
dictating word after word, while the scribes - Emma, John Whitmer, O. Cowdery,
or some other wrote it down.

Michael Morse, Emma Smith's brother-in-law, published in
an 1879 article in the RLDS publication Saint's Herald

Now the way he translated was he put the urim and thummim
into his hat and darkened his eyes then he would take a sentence and it would
appear in bright roman letters then he would tell the writer and he would write
it then that would go away the next sentence would come and so on. But if it was
not spelt rite it would not go away till it was rite, so we see it was
marvelous. Thus was the hol [whole] translated.

These were days never to be forgotten - to sit under the sound of a voice
dictated by the inspiration of heaven, awakened the utmost gratitude of this
bosom! Day after day I continued, uninterrupted, to write from his mouth, as he
translated, with the Urim and Thummim, or, as the Nephites would have said,
'Interpreters,' the history, or record, called 'The book of Mormon."

The manner in which this was done was by looking into the
Urim and Thummim, which was placed in a hat to exclude the light, (the plates
lying near by covered up), and reading off the translation, which appeared in
the stone by the power of God

“William Smith, On Mormonism, 1883” in Early Mormon
Documents, ed. Dan Vogel, (Salt Lake City, UT: Signature Books, 1996), 1:497.
it was not expedient for him to tell more than had already been told about the
coming forth of the Book of Mormon, and it was not well that any greater details
be provided.

Conference of the Church in October 1831, in Orange, Ohio

Warrant issued upon written complaint upon oath of Peter G. Bridgeman, who
informed that one Joseph Smith of Bainbridge was a disorderly person and an
imposter. Prisoner brought before Court March 20, 1826. Prisoner examined: says
that he came from the town of Palmyra, and had been at the house of Josiah
Stowel in Bainbridge most of time since; had small part of time been employed in
looking for mines, but the major part had been employed by said Stowel on his
farm, and going to school. That he had a certain stone which he had occasionally
look at to determine where hidden treasures in the bowels of the earth were;
that he professed to tell in this manner where gold mines were at a distance
under ground, and had looked for Mr. Stowel several times, and had informed him
where he could find these treasures, and Mr. Stowel had been engaged in digging
for them. That at Palmyra he pretended to tell by looking at this stone where
coined money was buried in Pennsylvania and while at Palmyra had frequently
ascertained in that way where lost property was of various kinds; that he had
occasionally been in the habit of looking through this stone to find lost
property for three years, but of late had pretty much given it up on account of
its injuring his health, especially his eyes, making them sore; that he did not
solicit business of this kind, and had always declined having anything to do
with this business.

Josiah Stowel sworn: says that prisoner had been at his house something like
five months; had been employed by him to work on farm part of time; that he
pretended to have skill of telling where hidden treasures in the earth were by
means of looking through a certain stone; that prisoner had looked for him
sometimes; once to tell him about money buried in Bend Mountain in Pennsylvania,
once for gold on Monument Hill, and once for a salt spring; and that he
positively knew that the prisoner could tell, and did possess the art of seeing
those valuable treasures through the medium of said stone; that he found the
[word illegible] at Bend and Monument Hill as prisoner represented it; that
prisoner had looked through said stone for Deacon Attleton for a mine, did not
exactly find it but got a p- [word unfinished] of ore which resembled gold, he
thinks; that prisoner had told by means of this stone where a Mr. Bacon had
buried money; that he and prisoner had been in search of it; that prisoner had
said it was in a certain root of a stump five feet from the surface of the
earth, and with it would be found a tail feather; that said Stowel and prisoner
thereupon commenced digging, found a tail feather, but money was gone; that he
supposed the money moved down. That prisoner did offer his services; that he
never deceived him; that prisoner looked through stone and described Josiah
Stowel's house and outhouses, while at Palmyra at Simpson Stowel's, correctly;
that he had told about a painted tree, with a man's head painted upon it, by
means of said stone. That he had been in company with prisoner digging for gold,
and had the most implicit faith in prisoner's skill.

Arad Stowel sworn: says that he went to see whether prisoner could convince him
that he possessed the skill he professed to have, upon which prisoner laid a
book upon a white cloth, and proposed looking through another stone which was
white and transparent, hold the stone to the candle, turn his head to look, and
read. The deception appeared so palpable that witness went off disgusted.
McMaster sworn: says he went with Arad Stowel, and likewise came away disgusted.
Prisoner pretended to him that he could discover objects at a distance by
holding this white stone to the sun or candle; that prisoner rather declined
looking into a hat at his dark colored stone, as he said that it hurt his eyes.

Jonathon Thompson: says that prisoner was requested to look for chest of money;
did look, and pretended to know where it was; and prisoner, Thompson and Yeomans
went in search of it; that Smith arrived at spot first; was at night; that Smith
looked in hat while there, and when very dark, and told how the chest was
situated. After digging several feet, struck something sounding like a board or
plant. Prisoner would not look again, pretending that he was alarmed on account
of the circumstances relating to the trunk being buried [which] came all fresh
to his mind. That the last time he looked he discovered distinctly the two
Indians who buried the trunk, that a quarrel ensued between them, and that one
of said Indians was killed by the other, and thrown into the hold beside the
trunk, to guard it, as he supposed. Thompson says that he believes in the
prisoner's professed skill; that the board he struck his spade upon was probably
the chest, but on account of an enchantment the trunk kept settling away from
under them when digging; that notwithstanding they continued constantly removing
the dirt, yet the trunk kept about the same distance from them. Says prisoner
said that it appeared to him that salt might be found at Bainbridge, and that he
is certain that prisoner can divine things by means of said stone. That as
evidence of the fact prisoner looked into his hat to tell him about some money
witness lost sixteen years ago, and that he described the man the witness
supposed had taken it, and the disposition of the money: And therefore the Court
find the Defendant guilty.

Joseph Smith's 1826 court transcript

... he used a stone called a "Seers stone," the "Interpreters" having been taken
away from him because of transgression. The "Interpreters" were taken from
Joseph after he allowed Martin Harris to carry away the 116 pages of Ms
[manuscript] of the Book of Mormon as a punishment, but he was allowed to go on
and translate by use of a "Seers stone" which he had, and which he placed in a
hat into which he buried his face, stating to me and others that the original
character appeared upon parchment and under it the translation in English.

David Whitmer, quoted by Zenas H. Gurley, RLDS Saints'
Herald 1885

The sum of the whole matter, then, concerning the manner
of translating the sacred record of the Nephites, according to the testimony of
the only witnesses competent to testify in the matter is: With the Nephite
record was deposited a curious instrument, consisting of two transparent stones,
set in the rim of a bow, somewhat resembling spectacles, but larger, called by
the ancient Hebrews 'Urim and Thummim,' but by the Nephites 'Interpreters.' In
addition to these 'Interpreters' the Prophet Joseph had a 'Seer Stone,'
possessed of similar qualities to the Urim and Thummim; that the prophet
sometimes used one and sometimes the other of these sacred instruments in the
work of translation; that whether the 'Interpreters' or the 'Seer Stone' was
used the Nephite characters with the English interpretation appeared in the
sacred instrument; that the Prophet would pronounce the English translation to
his scribe, which when correctly written would disappear and the other
characters with their interpretation take their place, and so on until the work
was completed

B.H. Roberts, The Seventy's Course in Theology, First Year, p.111

Mr. Harris says: "Joseph Smith, jr., found at Palmyra, N.
Y., on the 22d day of September, 1827, the plates of gold upon which was
recorded in Arabic, Chaldaic, Syriac, and Egyptian, the Book of Life, or the
Book of Mormon. I was not with him at the time, but I had a revelation the
summer before, that God had a work for me to do. These plates were found at the
north point of a hill two miles north of Manchester village. Joseph had a stone
which was dug from the well of Mason Chase, twenty-four feet from the surface.
In this stone he could see many thing to my certain knowledge. It was by means
of this stone he first discovered these plates.

We were waiting on Martin Harris who was doing his best
to sell a part of his farm, in order to raise the necessary funds. After a time
Hyrum Smith and others began to get impatient, thinking that Martin Harris was
too slow and under transgression for not selling his land at once, even if at a
great sacrifice. Brother Hyrum thought they should not wait any longer on Martin
Harris, and that the money should be raised in some other way. Brother Hyrum was
vexed with Brother Martin, and thought they should get the money by some means
outside of him, and not let him have anything to do with the publication of the
Book, or receiving any of the profits thereof if any profits should accrue. He
was wrong in thus judging Bro. Martin, because he was doing all he could toward
selling his land. Brother Hyrum said it had been suggested to him that some of
the brethren might go to Toronto, Canada, and sell the copy-right of the Book of
Mormon for considerable money: and he persuaded Joseph to inquire of the Lord
about it. Joseph concluded to do so. He had not yet given up the stone. Joseph
looked into the hat in which he placed the stone, and received a revelation that
some of the brethren should go to Toronto, Canada, and that they would sell the
copy-right of the Book of Mormon. Hiram Page and Oliver Cowdery went to Toronto
on this mission, but they failed entirely to sell the copy-right, returning
without any money. Joseph was at my father's house when they returned. I was
there also, and am an eye witness to these facts. Jacob Whitmer and John Whitmer
were also present when Hiram Page and Oliver Cowdery returned from Canada. Well,
we were all in great trouble; and we asked Joseph how it was that he had
received a revelation from the Lord for some brethren to go to Toronto and sell
the copy-right, and the brethren had utterly failed in their undertaking. Joseph
did not know how it was, so he enquired of the Lord about it, and behold the
following revelation came through the stone: "Some revelations are of God: some
revelations are of man: and some revelations are of the devil." So we see that
the revelation to go to Toronto and sell the copy-right was not of God, but was
of the devil or of the heart of man. When a man enquires of the Lord concerning
a matter, if he is deceived by his own carnal desires, and is in error, he will
receive an answer according to his erring heart, but it will not be a revelation
from the Lord.
David Whitmer, An Address to All Believers in Christ, p.30 - p.31

at Peter Whitmer Sr’s residence he [Orson Pratt] asked Joseph whether he could
not ascertain what his mission was, and Joseph answered him that he would see, &
asked Pratt and John Whitmer to go upstairs with him, and on arriving there
Joseph produced a small stone called a seer stone, and putting it into a Hat
soon commenced speaking and asked Elder P[ratt]. to write as he would speak, but
being too young and timid and feeling his unworthiness he asked whether Bro.
John W[hitmer]. could not write it, and the Prophet said that he could: Then
came the revelation to the Three named given Nov. 4th 1830.

Brother Hiram Page had in his possession a certain stone, by which he had
obtained certain "revelations" concerning the upbuilding of Zion, the order of
the Church, etc., all of which were entirely at variance with the order of God's
house, as laid down in the New Testament, as well as in our late revelations. As
a conference meeting had been appointed for the 26th 3 day of September, I
thought it wisdom not to do much more than to converse with the brethren on the
subject, until the conference should meet. Finding, however, that many,
especially the Whitmer family and Oliver Cowdery, were believing much in the
things set forth by this stone, we thought best to inquire of the Lord
concerning so important a matter; and before conference convened...

Source text: History of the Church, by Joseph Smith, 1:109-10.

OBSERVATIONS - Nobody ever saw the translators - the Urim
and Thummim. Smith realised he needed witnesses for the plates. But why not the
translators? That's odd. And the three witnesses of the Book of Mormon were
involved in the production of the text before they saw the plates. They were
biased. They had suffered for their involvement. No wonder they might have known
there were no plates and no wonder they would have been determined to keep the
real truth to themselves. They lied that there were plates. When Smith was a
money digger, he was able to say a lot of things with his face stuck in a hat.
Thus he could have written the Book of Mormon and memorised the text so that he
could recite it to those who wrote down what he dictated. We have only Smith's
word for it that visions could be seen on the stone in the hat. None of this is
enough to justify establishing a religion on. It could be thought that if Smith
really had the power to use the Urim and Thummim to translate, then the
translation was correct only when he used them. But as he also used the seer
stone he might have got a false translation as well. If so, then the Book of
Mormon is only right where the Urim and Thummim were used. God would not have
chosen such a useless prophet.

CASE FOR AN INVENTED TRANSLATION

If Smith had gold plates then this is the case against
his being unable to translate.

Nobody ever saw the glass spectacles Smith used to
translate or saw him using them. God supposedly put them with the plates for
translation. Smith's claims are lies for how can you trust the translation
when you cannot see what was provided to accomplish it? Even worse Smith
used a common stone as a seer stone - an occult device! The Book of Mormon
is a claimed occult translation rather than a religious one.

Despite the method being perfect - eg visions of the
translated text given by God to Smith in a seer stone - the Book of Mormon
needed a lot of fixing. It is not perfect. Smith himself did a lot
of editing and revising even after publication.

Smith said his firstborn son would be the translator.
That baby died.

Smith got false revelations through his seer stone - eg
when he got a prediction that the Book of Mormon copyright would be sold.
He admitted some of his revelations were from the devil.

Oliver Cowdery did some translating but it was more like
imagination that was really at work. He showed no evidence of significant
prophetic ability. Smith didn't show it either but that is not the point.
Smith tried to predict the future etc. God supposedly told Oliver through
Smith “Be patient my son, for it is wisdom in me, and it is not expedient that
you should translate at this present time.” None of this inspires confidence in
the Book of Mormon. It was alleged that Oliver could not understand the
method given as follows, "You must study it out in your mind; then you must ask
me if it be right, and if it is right, I will cause that your bosom shall burn
within you." More likely it was the case that the technique failed!

Smith was blocked from translating by sin - and even when
he said he was able to translate he was sinning worse than ever!

Smith failed to restore the Book of Lehi after much hard
translating work. 116 pages were accomplished but lost and Smith lamely
argued that God told him to use a different part of the plates instead. It
could be argued that if he really translated Lehi then what he replaced it with
could be his own invention Maybe God banned him from translating after
that?

Smith's attempt to get Charles Anthon to verify his
translation failed. Anton wrote that it was rubbish.

THE BOOK OF MORMON WITNESSES
www.exmormon.org/file9.htm
Excellent refutation of the claims of the witnesses of the Book of Mormon

JOSEPH SMITH AS A PROPHET by Richard Packham
www.exmormon.org/prophet.htm
Refutes the Mormon claim that Smith was a real prophet of God. The Mormons
accept the validity of Ezekiel 12:21-28 which says that if a prophecy is too
long in being fulfilled then it is a false prophecy. A prophecy will come true
by chance given long enough. Smith made many prophecies that have not come true
yet so he was a false prophet. By the same criteria, the Old Testament prophets
failed and the Christian claim that they predicted Jesus and his life by the
power of God is false for even if the prophecies did come true it was not God
that was behind it. Doctrine and Covenants 1:37 pledges that every word
prophesised by Smith will come true for God has spoken. On January 4th 1833
Smith predicted by the authority of Jesus that there were people then living who
would see the twelve tribes of Israel gathered to Missouri. This never happened.
Slaves did not rise up and cause a war as he predicted in Doctrine and Covenants
87. God told Smith that the communism practiced by his Church would never be
done away and would still be done when he comes again (Doctrine and Covenants
104). The Mormon Church dropped the communism causing minor schisms on the basis
that the Church could no longer be the true Church for doing that.

JERALD AND SANDRA TANNER’S DISTORTED VIEW OF MORMONISM: A RESPONSE TO MORMONISM,
SHADOW OR REALITY?
www.xmission.com/~country/reason/ldshist1.htm This page shows plainly the harm
that the Christian Church in general is doing with its rotten Bible for the evil
commanded by God in the Bible is defended on the basis that it has a purpose
known to God and this is used to justify the terrible doctrines such as polygamy
that the Mormons used to live out. The page does what all apologists for
religion does, ignore the major problems and nitpicks on rather minor errors in
the hope of showing the critics to be not worth listening to. For example, the
Tanners believed that Joseph Smith copied his father’s story of a dream he had
in 1811 into the Book of Mormon as the dream of Lehi because Joseph’s mother
Lucy wrote about the dream in 1845 and the two were identical in all serious
points. The page says that Lucy Smith simply filled in her memory of her
husband’s dream subconsciously from the Book of Mormon. But she had family and
friends to help her remember. The page says that since the Book of Mormon was
written first and she was writing 15 years later it is wrong to say that the
author of the Book of Mormon was the one doing the copying. But how do you know?
It is still most probable that the Tanners are right. If it is not then we still
have no reason to take one side or the other. Anyway, what about the more
serious objections to the Book of Mormon that the Tanners made? He’s nitpicking.
The page says that since the Temple ceremony of the Mormons has many elements in
it like Masonry that Smith did not borrow from Masonry for Masonry might have
been partly divinely inspired. This denies Occam’s Razor, stick to the simplest
explanation and that is that Smith stole Masonic rites. With the logic of the
page you could say the book or song you got caught plagiarising was not copied
on purpose but somebody must have telepathically put the words of an existing
song and the music into your unsuspecting mind.

BY HIS OWN HAND ON PAPYRUS, Charles Larson
At Mormons in Transition Website www.irr.org

MORE PROBLEMS WITH THE FIRST VISION, ANSWERING DR CLANDESTINE, Jerald and Sandra
Tanner
www.xmission.com/~country/reason/clndst10.htm

BOOK OF MORMON QUESTIONS
www.lds-mormon.com/bookofmormonquestions.shtml

MORMONISM UNVAILED: MORE EVIDENCE THAT IT IS TRUE. Christian Apologetics and
Research Ministry
www.carm.org/lds/unveiled_defended.htm

THE ABRIDGEMENT OF D&C 137
www.saintsalive./com/mormonism/falseprophetjs/htm

THE BOOK OF MORMON: ONE TOO MANY M’S Stephen Van Eck
www.infidels.org/library/modern/stephen_eck/toomany.html

EGYPTIAN CHARACTERS
www.mormonstudies.com/seer2.htm
This shows that when Smith translated the book of Abraham he invented
hieroglyphics where there was a piece missing from the papyri. The characters
Smith added make no sense to translators. Yet he translated these imaginary
hieroglyphics! His mother and close associate David Whitmer spoke of Joseph
copying characters of the gold plates of the Book of Mormon before he translated
and that like the Book of Abraham Smith often produced two lines in the
manuscript with the translation of a single character which shows that the whole
Book of Mormon thing was a hoax.

MORMON FARMS
www.xmission.com~country/reason/farms_1.htm
by Jerald and Sandra Tanner. Gathers evidence that indicates that it was
possible that Smith was insane and had manic depression.

COMMENTS ON THE BOOK OF MORMON WITNESSES: A RESPONSE TO JERALD AND SANDRA TANNER
www.mormons.org/response/bom/witnesses_Roper.htm
A ridiculous rebuttal that has been taken into account for this book and
refuted.

FACTS ON THE BOOK OF MORMON WITNESSES, PART 1

www.irr.org/mit/bomwit1.html
Excellent refutation of the reliability of the witnesses to the Book of Mormon